A MINUTE’S silence was held in memory of popular teenager Scott Holden on Saturday, ahead of his football team’s first game without him.

Team members and supporters of Drakes Broughton Rangers FC under 16s squad held a minute’s silence ahead of their away game against Crowle FC under 16s in an emotional tribute to the 16-year-old who died on Christmas Eve.

Players from each team, as well as the managers and coaches, wore black arm bands in memory of Scott, and family members of the Drakes Broughton players wore black and yellow ribbons as a mark of respect.

The team also received a man of the match trophy donated by Crowle FC in memory of Scott to be used throughout the season.

As previously reported in the Worcester News, Scott was a keen footballer and joined the Drakes Broughton squad about 18 months ago.

Manager of the under 16s squad Steve Goode said before Christmas the whole team, including Scott, had been looking forward to the game against Crowle who are the league’s “runaway leaders”.

The team battled through the game and despite losing 3-2 on the day, Mr Goode said their performance would have made Scott proud.

He said: “It was our first match without him.

“Come Friday they didn’t want to play it, but they did their club proud and they definitely did Scott proud.

“Everyone wanted to win for him. You cannot take anything away from them, they really put up a battle. It was just one of those games.

“It was an outstanding performance by everybody. There were a few red eyes but it was a brilliant effort put in by the lads and it summed up how much they cared for Scott.”

Mr Goode said that respects were also paid to Scott at the team’s training session on Friday night.

He said: “It was nice to see more than 20 lads show up.

"We had a chat about how everyone was feeling. Scott would have been pleased with the way we performed in training as well.

“I feel gutted I really do. We’re quite a family-knit team, he was one of my boys. It’s hard to put it into words. The whole team is attending the funeral.”